Day three of the Shanghai Major group stage saw teams in group C—including Archon, OG, LGD Gaming, and Newbee—battle for who would advance to the main event upper bracket. You can check out the VODs of yesterday’s matches at the official Twitch streams, as well as the upcoming Group C matches.

OG vs Team Archon (2:0)

Group favorites OG started the day off with a decisive 2:0 over North America’s Team Archon, taking just over an hour to win both matches.

LGD Gaming vs Newbee (2:1)

LGD secured game one with a dominant performance by all three of LGD’s core heroes – Enchantress, Juggernaut, and Spectre. Newbee brought things back with a rapid 21 minute victory in game two. LGD won the final match after 52 minutes, with Newbee failing to execute their split push strategy.

Newbee vs Team Archon (2:0)

Not surprisingly, the group’s weakest team – NA’s Archon—was once again defeated with a quick 2:0, this time by China’s Newbee.

OG vs LGD Gaming (2:1)

OG dominated game one from the beginning, starting out by securing both bounty runes and quickly picking up the lead in kills, winning at 32 minutes after securing a second Roshan kill. Game two started out with OG in the lead, taking out two sets of barracks. However, LGD managed to recover and go straight for the throne, securing the win after a gruelling 75 minutes match.

The final match was relatively back and forth, but OG’s Miracle carried the team to a win at 39 minutes with a standout Slark performance.

LGD Gaming vs Newbee (2:0)

Newbee once again faced LGD in a rematch to see who would advance to the #2 upper bracket spot. Game one saw a push-heavy lineup from Newbee with Chen, Beastmaster, and Pugna, but LGD was ahead the entire match. Despite Newbee managing to pick off two sets of rax by split pushing, they end up falling by 52 minutes.

Game two ended after only 25 minutes, with LGD’s Sylar playing phenomenally on Lone Druid.

Valve’s famous CEO Gabe Newell. Source: http://equityarcade.com

2GD vs Valve Drama

Meanwhile, the growing drama over the firing of James “2GD” Harding as the English commentator and host of the event also saw some very shocking developments. Things escalated with Valve CEO Gabe Newell posting a reddit thread in which he called James an “ass.”

James responded with a 16-page manifesto which detailed his experiences and relationship working with Valve, painting things in a very different light. The whole debacle has the Dota 2 community in an uproar, with many Esports personalities coming to James’ defense, and fans reacting negatively to Valve’s handling of the situation.